Buyers asking for another viewing

[AlexisP90]

Near completion - or so we think! Our buyers have just asked for another viewing. Only reason is "to view the house again" this is 4 months after their offer. Their mortgage has been approved as has ours for our new house and we are just awaiting enquiries.

They didn't do a survey.

Is this... normal? It seems odd to me, but I've not sold a house before only purchased.

We have said yes, but told them it will have to be next week (they wanted to come today after asking st 6pm last night)

I’ve sold a few houses and this is normal I think. They probably just want to visualise where their stuff will go. Having said that, after we had our buyers coming to view our house 3 times and after every single time I had to clean and fumigate the toilet because their toddler son took a massive smelly shit leaving skid marks everywhere, I refused a 4th viewing 😬😂

They may have had a drive by survey for the mortgage and you would not know about that. It is sensible for them to view again after such a long wait, they need to see that they are getting what they initially saw and agreed to .

We’re exchanging next week and I’m viewing again tomorrow. It’s a probate sale with no one living there so I’m making sure there hasn’t been a leak or anything that no one knows about. But even if someone is living there I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have another look at something you’re spending hundreds of thousands on.

Didn’t know that was a thing!

This. I’d want a hell of a lot more than two viewings!

Ahhh yes that is a thing - forgot about that! Our mortgage company did that when we purchased our house originally. Although later on we did get a full survey done.

I’d say a second viewing in the early stages is normal to make up their mind, and a viewing near completion for measurements. But I’d tell the sellers that it’s for measurements to not freak them out 🤣 Potentially also a short look in the day of/before completion to check that everything’s still ok.

I’ve had an offer accepted after 1 viewing and I will definitely be asking to go back with my measuring tape so I can work out which bits of my furniture will fit and which I need to get rid of before moving. Not weird at all!

We ended up seeing our new house three times. The buyer was only there for the first one.

One - both of us
Two - I wanted to view without the owner so I could easily look in cupboards etc
Three - had an electrician visit to give a quote for urgent work.

Very normal.

Bought 5 houses in my life, never had a formal survey, they are worthless, there is no come back & the surveyor can't look at anything that risks potential damage.

I have always got a builder to look over the house, i can see for my self if the facia boards need painting or the gutter is blocked.

Though for my current house, the seller had a survey done by a buyer who had a mortgage offer withdrawn.. it was full of BS... things like "roof is in average condition but a specialist roofing contractor might be needed" "Advised that kitchen flat roof hasn't got insulation but i cannot be sure" wtaf??

My builder undid a light fitting and could see the celotex in the roof!

The surveyor missed the water leak down one side of the chimney, which again the builder spotted, that got us a £1000 reduction.

Always have a late viewing, i want to check on what i'm buying & have a viewing in the rain if possible, window leaks, gutters etc or do a drive by.

Agree that it's completely normal to have a second viewing - usually just prior to exchange in my experience.

We had one set of buyers a few years back who viewed the house we were selling four times, which seemed excessive imho. They wanted to come a fifth time - to bring more family members (first viewing just them and newborn, second her pre-teen kids from previous relationship, third her parents, fourth to measure up), but we managed to dissuade them!

They didn't find any issues on those additional viewings and the sale went ahead at asking price - in just nine weeks.

We've not had a survey on our last four purchases (cash buyers), but have also never done a ten minute viewing.

Imho surveyors make so many errors, I'd rather save my money!

We always try to spend about an hour looking over the house/garden properly...but that might be because our last few moves have been long distance ones so it's hard to pop back if something was overlooked/forgotten. Also, obviously, if we're not having a survey we want to be as thorough as possible.

We’ve sold two houses and neither of our buyers have had a home buyers survey (if that’s what you mean) the mortgage company will do a survey but that’s different and they will just look at the house and area (AFAIK)

home buyers survey can’t tell you heaps of stuff, you have to go whole hog for a level 3 and they are pricey so most don’t!

I mean we did a whole level 3 survey on our new home but that's because it's pretty old.

It was... OK I guess. Just a lot and lot of pages of things that could happen and a few pages of some potential issues.

It was a lot of money... our house we are selling is about 12 years old so perhaps they just didn't feel they needed one

When we bought our house we did 2 viewings 1 to begin with then one couple of weeks after we put an offer in just to double check it was definitely the one. I definitely wouldn’t of gone into someone’s home with a measuring tape, that should be done once it’s your home

@jasflowers It is not possible to get builders out now. Highly likely they have no idea about lots of issues! What’s wrong with a roof, cracks etc. I’d never ever suggest anyone does this. It’s funny how in the uk professional people with years of training are rejected in the belief jobbjng builders know better. Laughable really.

Totally normal, they probably want to measure up etc. or perhaps their solicitor, has suggested to view before exchange.

Totally normal. I did similar as I wanted to check some measurements for fridge / freezer / patio doors for blinds etc. and to reimagine how my furniture might fit.

We were advised to view just before exchange to make sure nothing had materially changed from the point of offer. This was after a friend completed only to find the property had a major leak that the vendors didn't declare and the house was uninhabitable while it was repaired and dried out. It caused all sorts of problems to sort out who was liable as the purchaser is supposed to insure from exchange not completion.

I’d like to think normal. We had an offer accepted on a house in March and are currently organising a survey. Once the survey is done we are going to ask if we can have another viewing, for two reasons really:
1- Want to do a few measurements
2- We’ve only seen the house once, at our first viewing, and obviously at that one we didn’t know it was going to be ours/hadn’t put an offer in yet, and we are really keen just to see it again and think about what we need to buy for it.

It might be as innocent as wondering what large items of furniture to pack and which to sell.

Better put the ceiling back up 😄

I mean, I know you are joking, but………

Cuts a little too close to home.

First house we attempted to buy was a private sale, seller was dragging their feet for 6 months (utterly infuriating, no EA to chase as a private sale).

Suddenly they contacted us and where all rush, rush, rush talking about wanting to get the contract done so we asked to go see it again... and walked into the back bedroom to discover a huge hole, it didn't have a roof anymore.

Blew off in a storm.

Needless to say we didn't buy it.

Our solicitor told us we had to do a viewing immediately before exchange, because the condition at exchange is what you're agreeing to buy. So if cupboard doors had been ripped off and holes knocked in walls since we did the first viewing we would have had no come back.

We also measured absolutely everything on that visit so we knew which furniture would fit and which to chuck out prior to moving!

This happened to us, they didn't do a survey but came for a viewing shortly before exchange and turned up with a builder friend. They ended up finding lots of 'faults' and managed to negotiate a big discount as we were absolutely desperate to move.

It's nothing you can avoid, but I'd have appreciated being better prepared for it. It might be worth asking who will be attending the viewing?

No it's not. Unless you mean the bank doing their own survey which is often desk based